Kyōya Kaguya
Spider Bind, Spider Sticky Gold, Spider Cocoon, Spider Web Unrolling, Spider War Bow: Terrible Split, Spider Web Area, Spider Sticking Spit, Spider Web Flower, Puppet Performance: Skilful Achievement with a Human Body, Puppet Technique Mechanical Light Shield Block, Poison Mist Hell: Hundred Continuous Firing, Black Secret Technique: Machine One Shot, Red Secret Technique: Machinery Triangles, Prepared Puppet: Eight Waves of Needles, Thousand Hands Manipulation Force, Puppet Technique: Prosthetic Arm Senbon, Manipulating Attack Blades, Sealing Technique: Iron Maiden, Sealing Technique: Spiralling Vortex, Demonic Illusion: Song of Nature, }} 'Background' Early Life Takaharu Kurama, born under the name Seno Kazaro, was the youngest son of parents Ishidate Kazaro of the Kazaro Clan and Kajura Kurama of the Kurama Clan in the village of Konohagakure. Even as a child, Seno displayed unusually high levels of intelligence, even if he lacked the motivation to apply it properly during his studies. Being the son of two prominent Jonin level parents and the youngest brother of three, the deck was already stacked against the boy from the get go to surpass his siblings and parents. Entering the Academy at age five, Seno excelled in nearly all his classes, performing especially well in Genjutsu, in which he received special training from his mother due to their clan's special prowess in the ninja art. Graduating the Academy at the age of six, Seno found himself rising in the shinobi world, becoming a Genin assigned to his father, Ishidate's team. A year into Seno's shinobi life, Team Ishidate was sent on what was supposed to be a slightly more difficult C-Rank mission to stop a bandit ring that had made base on the main road leading out of Konohagakure, preying on defenseless travelers. Posing as a traveling caravan, Team Ishidate set out on their mission, only to discover it was more difficult then what was originally thought. Amongst the bandit population were Missing-Nin who had joined the ring to reap the benefits of profit. Realizing this, Ishidate ordered Seno and his teammates to flee, realizing that this mission was much more dangerous then his seven year old son and his teammates were trained for. However, escape simply wasn't an option. Try as Seno and his father did to survive, the bandit and missing nin team were too much to handle, and Ishidate was killed in the fight, along with both of Seno's teammates. Seno would have been killed too, yet in the light of his father being killed, and the intense fear that he was next, Seno's limits burst and he awakened the Kurama Clan Kekkai Genkai, trapping the entire party in a nightmarish Genjutsu of his own creation, which eventually led to their deaths. After this, the boy passed out. The Traveling Caravan The next thing the boy knew, he woke up in a tent, in fresh clothes and a wet towel laying on his forehead. Standing before him was a kindly looking old man by the name of Hikaru. Upon asking where he was, Hikaru revealed to him that they were somewhere in the deserts of the Land of Wind. Hikaru, who was the chief of a nomadic group of travelers who roamed the shinobi world, found the child upon their return to the Land of Wind from the Land of Fire, and took Seno with them to heal the boy. Seno, who at the time maintained little to no memory of who he was or where he came from, became fond of Hikaru, and Hikaru became fond of Seno in turn. Seno joined the traveling as the chief's adoptive son, resuming his ninja training under him. It was Hikaru who first taught him the Puppet Technique in the deserts of the Land of Wind, teaching him how to control and how to construct puppets. This training would be the basis for what would later become Takaharu's staple fighting style. Seno never officially took the Chūnin Exam to become a Chūnin, yet by the time he reached the age of nine, he had amassed the skill and intellect necessary to qualify as such by most village standards, even if he wasn't a shinobi for any village during this time. By the time Seno reached the age of 14, he was considered one of the strongest nomadic warriors within the travelling caravan, becoming one of the best puppet users in the tribe, and furthering his skill in Genjutsu to a degree where he was able to somewhat channel the powers of his Kekkai Genkai to produce extremely powerful Genjutsu capable of killing an opponent. The young boy was practically a prodigy by the nomadic standards. However, it was also during this time that Takaharu truly began to suffer the 'Curse of the Kurama' as he liked to call it. His control over his Kekkai Genkai was mediocre at best, and his ability to create such vivid, and potentially deadly, illusions scared him, and began to cause him a degree of paranoia. In essence, he was afraid of crossing the line between reality and fantasy and losing himself to his own illusions, a fear that he holds even today, and serves as the basis for his inner demons. Enter the Land of Snow Seno was seventeen when he finally left the nomadic tribe to rejoin the shinobi world, after his adoptive father, Hikaru's passing. By this point, Seno had become amazingly adept in his clan's Kekkai Genkai, as well as his puppetry. Due to this, when Seno immigrated to Yukigakure and joined their shinobi forces, he found himself climbing the ranks with relative ease, become an ANBU Captain of the shinobi village by the age of eighteen. During his three years with Yukigakure, Seno served as one of Jonii Moonfeather's, the Sandaime Yukikage, closest aides within the village ANBU, performing hundreds of missions in service of the village. It was also during this time that Seno gained the moniker, "The Chameleon Sage" because of his tendency to summon Chameleons to fight alongside him during certain fights When Seno was twenty one years old, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Kusagakure along with another ANBU by the Sandaime Yukikage, to offer support in rebuilding the village after it was attacked by terrorists. What was supposed to be a peaceful mission to the friendly allied village of Kusagakure ended horrifically for the young shinobi. En route, he was attacked by a team of rogue shinobi, and try as he might to escape, he was unable to defeat the team and was "killed". However, Seno's story didn't truly end here. To the world, Seno Kazaro is dead. Yet in reality, he is very much alive. Having cut himself off from his troubled past, he traveled the shinobi world for years, working freelance as an assassin for hire, and maintaining as little contact with people as possible. Yet recently, the man known as 'Takaharu Kurama' has resurfaced back into the public life, taking refuge within the shinobi village of Uzushiogakure as a sworn shinobi of that village, deciding to make a name of himself again and to rebuild his shattered life. 'Personality' Not much is known about Seno prior to his disappearance, yet Takaharu can be described as an odd man, a loner of sorts. Most have described him to be a likable person with a likable personality, yet off-putting at the same time. His quick wit has also resulted in him making sarcastic comments towards....mostly everything. In addition to such, his outward appearance and behavior can be described as overly messy and disorganized, his attitude towards most things could be described as extremely lazy or having a constant bored expression. However, there is another aspect to him. Takaharu seems to be an overly cautious man, never one to rush full on into any situation without having a full analysis of the situation, his opponent's skills and how likely he is to survive in a certain scenario. It should also be noted that Takaharu is quite the knowledge seeker, taking a particular interest in foreign culture and the customs and practices of other village. He also has a creative streak, showing an unexpected talent for painting and sculpting, however such is a talent that he rarely shows in public, realizing that possessing an active imagination and flaunting it so frequently could result in his Kekkai Genkai becoming needlessly excited. 'Appearance' Standing at a height of 6 foot, Takaharu Kurama is an exceptionally tall gentleman with a slim athletic build. He possesses piercing deep purple eyes that serve to complement his long, disheveled green hair. Takaharu's complexion can be described as fair with a hint of tan to give himself a slightly less pale appearance. His combat garb consists of dark shinobi armor with gold lining running across the chest, baggy dark green pants, black shinobi combat boots and a black mask covering the lower half of his face, stopping just below the eyes. Takaharu's forehead protector is woven into his gold sash, which is tied tightly around his waist, allowing the village crest to be on display around his waist. Takaharu's casual attire is a bit less strict and comfort robbing. When not on missions, Takaharu discards the face mask and allows his hair to run free, extending all the way down his lower back. His attire typically consists of a loose fitting dark blue martial arts uniform with golden lining which extends to go all the way down to his feet, covering his black pants underneath and the white boots he typically wears with the rest of the outfit. Takaharu can also be seen with a single pierced earring located on his right earlobe. Another thing to note is that he can sometimes be seen carrying a large, metal case with odd, demonic designs, fake eyes adorning the upper half of it and small hands seemingly pressed up against some imagined barrier, as if trying to escape. This strange case is nearly as tall as Takaharu is in terms of height and is wrapped completely in chains, which Takaharu uses to strap the case to his back. This case serves to carry at least one of his puppets (and at most three of them) and is large enough to transport himself if needed. 'Abilities' Puppet Technique The key to Takaharu's fighting style is centered around his mastery control over puppets. Having learned the art at a young age when he was a shinobi in Sunagakure. His versatility as a puppet master gives him the capability to control up to ten puppets at once, one string per finger and also gives him much more control over his specially crafted puppets, the lag time between his commands and the puppet's response have reached a point of little difference. Due to his prowess as a puppet master, Takaharu excels in the art of long range combat and usage of Bukijutsu, as each of his puppets possess their own unique array of weapons and traps. In addition to just controlling puppets, Takaharu has achieved extreme success in the controlling of people and corpses, able to seize control of one's body using the chakra threads if the target is willing or weakened enough to relinquish control to him. This serves as a last resort in the rare case that all of his pre-prepared puppets are deemed unusable. Tatsumi (The largest and tallest puppet in the ensemble) Of all the puppets in Takaharu's collection, Tatsumi is by far the largest and sturdiest, his main focus being a mix of heavy weight offense with a heavier insistence on defense. Tatsumi usually serves as the puppet positioned closest to Takaharu, being that his main focus is defending the controller (AKA Takaharu) in the rare case that an opponent gets too close for comfort. That being said, Tatsumi possesses the most potential for heavy lifting out of the collection, and could wield some of Takaharu's heavier weaponry. Like the rest of his puppets, Tatsumi has an array of hidden weaponry and surprises and can often be seen wielding a large sword in one hand with a gargantuan Kite-style shield in the other Hikari (Far Right, large puppet) The second largest puppet in Takaharu's posession, Hikari serves the purpose of being the capture and transport member of the collection. Like Tatsumi, Hikari was built with reinforced material to boost defensive capabilities and to essentially make it a lot harder to destroy then the average puppet. Hikari's main offensive capabilities lie in the hollow nature of the puppet. The puppet was created with extra endurance to compensate for it's hollow inside, making the puppet a prime choice for live capture and storage of weapons. Hikari serves to hold most of Takaharu's weapons scrolls for all of his puppets, in which the puppet can retrieve at will by opening up it's body and extracting it from the hollow inside. In addition, the inside of Hikari's large stomach was not only completely hollow, but was filled with sealing formulas meant to carry out the capture technique Sealing Technique: Iron Maiden which was essentially meant to kidnap and restrain a live opponent via chakra sealing. Kage Another puppet in Takaharu's extensive puppet collection, this puppet's primary focus of offensive support, often attacking in sync with Kro, another of Takaharu's puppets. An incredibly thin puppet who's body is covered from shoulders down in a dark black cloak, the puppet's tribal mask type face and clothing hint that it is supposed to resemble some form of Grim Reaper, which is only amplified given the puppet's use of a large scythe sharp enough to cleave most opponent's in half in one swing. Kage ranks in third as Takaharu's deadliest puppets, it's compatibility with Kro for joint attacks contributing to it's overall effectiveness Kro Another of Takaharu's puppet collection, who's main purpose is offense. Crafted with speed and massacre in mind, Kro was designed to be the most demonic of Takaharu's puppets, possessing a tail instead of feet that resemble that of a scorpion's tail. Kro also posesses four arms as opposed to the standard two, making it capable of utilizing more weaponry then the other puppets. Kro and Kage were both designed to target their opponent's in joint attacks, and their coordination makes the pair extremely deadly when utilized. Kohaku Out of all 6 puppets in Takaharu's collection, Kohaku is easily his favorite, possessing a deadly amount of potential in the offensive field, the defensive field and the supplementary field, essentially making him a jack of all trades. Garbed in a dark robe, adorned with skull jewelry and complete with a hood and bone mask, Kohaku's appearance serves to confirm the tribal appearance theme that ran throughout the puppet collection. Kohaku's attire also serves to conceal any signs of weapons that were otherwise very visible with the rest of the puppets, who either did not wear actual clothes, or wore ragged cloaks. Takaharu has attained such a mastery in using Kohaku that there is very little lag time between Takaharu's commands and Kohaku's reaction, creating a situation where Kohaku has the potential to dodge and defend against attacks the other puppets cannot. In addition, Takaharu has also trained himself well enough in attack sequences in order to use his spider ninjutsu in conjunction with Kohaku's attack, adding on to Kohaku's potential for wide scale damage. Taijutsu As with all puppet masters, his excellence in long to mid range combat has resulted in his poor prowess when it comes to close range. Takaharu has long since accepted the fact that he will never be capable of defeating an opponent when it came to hand to hand combat, he could at least be able to survive against an opponent who came that close. As such, Takaharu has trained himself to be a highly capable escapist, boasting unusually high flexibility and reaction time, which allows him to accurately dodge and maneuver around his opponent in the case of them getting in too close. In addition to this, Takaharu has one other precaution to handle close combat situations: Sosen The puppet known as 'Sosen' was meant to be extremely versatile in nature, equally balanced between offensive function, defensive function, and supplementary function. Yet the puppet, in addition to being used for battle, also serves another purpose. It serves as Takaharu's puppet armor when out in field missions. The puppet is built in a way that allows for Takaharu to fit inside and control the puppet from the inside, providing a deadly yet protective shell to conceal himself in. Not only does this serve as protection for Takaharu, but also serves to conceal his identity, as 'Sosen' can be vaguely identified as a tall woman, who's frame is just large enough for Takaharu's slim build to fit inside comfortably. Despite the fact that the puppet armor can easily be identified as a puppet, a simple application of the Transformation Technique can solve that problem by making 'Sosen' appear to be anything that Takaharu desires her to be. Nature Transformation Even from early childhood, Takaharu had developed an extreme interest in his primary nature, Water Release. Throughout most of his teenage and adult life, Takaharu worked diligently to perfect his nature and has since achieved near mastery in Water Release, capable of summoning large amounts of water at once to completely change the landscape to suit his needs. This also develops quite a field advantage as Takaharu has expressed the ability to hold his breath underwater for extremely long periods of time as well as being quite the capable swimmer. This effectively allows Takaharu to hide himself and his puppets underwater, and be able to transport them across long distances in a short period of time. In addition to Water Release, Takaharu later discovered an affinity for Fire Release however that category of study is mainly used for offense and Takaharu hasn't dedicated nearly as much time to it's mastery as he had for Water Release previously. Genjutsu Being a member of the Kurama Clan, Takaharu was born destined to be an excellent user of Genjutsu. Even in the Academy, Takaharu expressed a great deal of skill in Genjutsu, being able to create high level illusions with relative ease. As a child, Takaharu also sported a wild imagination and often imagined fake scenarios in his head, some of which would come into play whenever he used Genjutsu, creating fantastical sceneries and illusions that would normally be only possible to those of much more experience in the ninja art. However, this prodigal ability in Genjutsu did not come without it's drawbacks. It was early in Takaharu's days as a Genin that he discovered his clan's Kekkai Genkai, the ability to create Genjutsu so absolute that it is simply overwhelming. Takaharu's Kekkai Genkai has reached a point where he can create genjutsu so powerful that it causes the brain to believe anything that happens to the victim to the point where the genjutsu physically harms the victim's body. Essentially he can kill others with illusions alone. Over the years, Takaharu has attained a significant degree of control over his gift, able to use it at will....mostly. However, Takaharu still maintains the fear that one day he will lose control of his powers and the lines between reality and illusion will blur into nothingness, with him in the middle, lost forever in a world of illusions of his own creation. Because of this, Takaharu's subconscious lords over a portion of that power, for Takaharu is almost afraid to utilize his Kekkai Genkai. This creates the threat of a second personality to Takaharu, a darker, more dangerous side to him that only comes out when Takaharu reaches a point of absolute desperation. Spider Techniques Having learned the secret to Spider Techniques from his adoptive father, Hikaru, in his early life, Takaharu sought to expand upon his ability as an older shinobi. Takaharu has the ability to make spider webs by infusing his spit or sweat with chakra. He could use his webs to bind, trap, or sense enemies. These threads were extremely sticky, yet durable and elastic. This is because his chakra is constantly flowing through the webs, which also means it could not be severed by normal tools such as Kunai. Takaharu could also create a thicker golden liquid that hardened into a chakra-blocking metal on contact with air. By chewing the spider web liquid inside his mouth, he could make it more solid and gum-like, allowing him to form makeshift weapons or could even be taken a step further and form a protective armor by secreting the golden liquid through his pores, defending him completely against physical attacks, metal throwing weapons and chakra based attacks. Nexus Toxin/Smoke Ninjutsu A rare poison created by Takaharu Kurama, the likes of which is applied to all of his weapons, and his puppet's hidden weapons. Meant to serve more as a hallucinogen then anything else, the Nexus poison is a nonlethal drug meant to dull the senses and cause the victim to experience wild and vivid hallucinations, the likes of which only become more realistic and nightmarish the longer the drug courses through the person's system. The drug is relatively fast acting, coming into focus in only a few minutes after entering the bloodstream, and gradually getting worse as time goes on. Takaharu has been known to use this poison in conjunction with Smoke Ninjutsu in order to manipulate the gaseous form of the toxin so as to more effectively spread the toxin. Summoning Technique The only testament to Takaharu's former identity is his summoning animal: Chameleons. Derived from his previous title," The Chameleon Sage", Takaharu has established a close relationship with the resourceful reptiles, and has been known to utilize their services on several occasions.